


Looking at the End

by bellonia



Category: Dragon Age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-27
Updated: 2012-01-27
Packaged: 2017-10-30 05:11:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellonia/pseuds/bellonia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kmeme fill: "Bethany does not pass her Harrowing. How does Hawke react? What about the other companions?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking at the End

"I have come, Brother. As you asked." Bethany curled her hands on her lap and stared at her brother and his lover with flat eyes. "But I must return to the Gallows. I should not have left." They stood at the podium in the Chantry, Bethany looking as if she could give a speech... but not with that voice. Everyone had gone to bed in the Chantry, leaving them to talk. 

He swallowed, hard, and touched the brand on her forehead. "Oh, Bethany. Oh little sister." He wrapped his arms around her and she allowed the hug. He knew she wouldn't but to him, she felt more frail than she ever had before - even more frail than the day she'd left.

"Anders," he whispered. "Please... Justice. I need my sister."

"I am here," she stated, not to reassure him but to state the fact.

Anders had to reach into his anger, into the rage and hurt - the flatness of Bethany's face, the anger and hurt and need in Hawke's to find Justice.

"I am not a toy to the summoned when you wish to play -- ah," Justice breathed, interrupting himself at the brand.

She tightened the hug around her brother. "I'm sorry, Garrett, so sorry," she whispered. "They - I - I had been an apostate too long. They couldn't trust me. I thought I would be okay."

"I love you, Bethany. I'm sorry I couldn't save you," he whispered into her hair. "I wanted you to know that."

"I know, I knew," she promised then let out a pained sound. "It's fading! Please, don't make me be that again. I can't stand it - I can't even feel angry at what they've done to me. I... I can't remember that I had a crush on Sebastian or how Isabela teased me and have it mean anything."

He let out a laugh between the budding tears, "You had a crush on-"

"Shut up, Garrett," she gave him a wavering smile. "Please... don't make me go back."

"You can't ask me to-"

"I am. That's... exactly what I'm asking. I can't live like that."

He kissed her forehead gently, over the brand, and a knife slid between her ribs. He knew the place - it would hurt, but only for a moment. She would bleed out in seconds, and she could no longer feel fear.

"Thank you, Anders," Garrett whispered. He set her for a funeral pyre on the tidying her hair around her face, laying her flat with her arms across her chest. Now that he was finished, he stood, he walked away.

"Now you can finish," he told Anders. "I have to meet Meredith and Orsino."


End file.
